It is now in the flow of existence in a dead American world 7:38 PM Friday night. Carol and Josie went for a walk. Josie is going to spend the night with Nonie and Papa. That means Papa sleeps down in the lower level tonight. I will sleep surrounded by twelve thousand books, which is a blessing. There are no books in the New Creation as far I know presently.

I wrote earlier about Carol and I's day in Grand Rapids Michigan. I did not mention a conversation I had with a young sales clerk in the Used Books section of Baker Book House a Christian books store and also Baker publishes Christian books. Carol was talking to this young fellow when I came up to her in the Used Books Section. Carol had told this young Christian fellow a little about us. I started talking to this young fellow (who I found out was married and was thinking of going to seminary to become a Gospel minister/a Teaching Elder in the PCA). I shared with John my story of how I pursued the gospel minister and never got the chance to excise my spiritual gifts in a visible Presbyterian Church In America. I tend to repeat the same old sad tale even though I hate hearing myself repeat it over and over. My personal Christian philosophy is to live in the Now and not in the past. What happened in the Past is past so why dig it up? I am an old man and I am happy.

I suppose what I was seeking to do is make sure this young man who was thinking of entering the Gospel Ministry realize all is not roses. There are thorns in the gospel field. I also was seeking to make him realize the need for all those who call themselves Gospel Ministers actually give their sheep pastoral care. So many Christians in churches have no spiritual oversight.

I need to just keep my eyes on the Lord as approach the end of my spiritual journey.

So Caleb, Emily, Josie, and Cora & their puppy Ollie were here for dinner. Before everyone arrived for dinner I did mow the yard front and back. That was fun. I do not like mowing the lawn, but our yard was beginning to look like a wheat field.

I have been looking at tonight for devotions a new book I got today titled, 'The Beauty of the Lord: Theology As Aesthetics' by Jonathan King.

Carol plans to go to the Farmer's Market with Josie tomorrow morning to get flowers for her parents funeral pails. It is time once again to place on Carol's parents graves funeral pails with fresh flowers (we also place an American flag on her Dad's grave because he served in the Army during the Second World War).

I think even being an old and happy man doesn't erase the things in life we wish would have or could have done differently. I mean, no one hits the end of the road without having at least a few things they couldn't finish. That's okay to want to relay that story.

Besides, it sounds like that was a big part of what helped you find your spirituality. Or solidified it, or something along those lines. Not being able to enter the Ministry in person helped shape the ways you express the ministry in your heart. That's a beautiful thing.